Early Britain eBook

One act of Dunstan’s policy, however, had far-reaching
results, of a kind which he himself could never have
anticipated. He handed over all Northumbria beyond
the Tweed—­the region now known as the Lothians—­as
a fief to Kenneth, king of Scots. This accession
of territory wholly changed the character of the Scottish
kingdom, and largely promoted the Teutonisation of
the Celtic North. The Scottish princes now took
up their residence in the English town of Edinburgh,
and learned to speak the English language as their
mother-tongue. Already Eadmund had made over
Strathclyde or Cumberland to Malcolm; and thus the
dominions of the Scottish kings extended over the
whole of the country now known as Scotland, save only
the Scandinavian jarldoms of Caithness, Sutherland,
and the Isles. Strathclyde rapidly adopted the
tongue of its masters, and grew as English in language
(though not in blood) as the Lothians themselves.
Fife, in turn, was quickly Anglicised, as was also
the whole region south of the Highland line.
Thus a new and powerful kingdom arose in the North;
and at the same time the cession of an English district
to the Scottish kings had the curious result of thoroughly
Anglicising two large and important Celtic regions,
which had hitherto resisted every effort of the Northumbrian
or West Saxon over-lords. There is no reason
to believe, however, that this introduction of the
English tongue and English manners was connected with
any considerable immigration of Teutonic settlers
into the Anglicised tracts. The population of
Ayrshire, of Fife, of Perthshire, and of Aberdeen,
still shows every sign of Celtic descent, alike in
physique, in temperament, and in habit of thought.
The change was, in all probability, exactly analogous
to that which we ourselves have seen taking place
in Wales, in Ireland, and in the Celtic north of Scotland
at the present day.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE AUGUSTAN AGE AND THE LATER ANGLO-SAXON CIVILISATION.

The slight pause in the long course of Danish warfare
which occurred during the vigorous administration
of Dunstan, affords the best opportunity for considering
the degree of civilisation reached by the English
in the last age before the Norman Conquest. Our
materials for such an estimate are partly to be found
in existing buildings, manuscripts, pictures, ornaments,
and other archaeological remains, and partly in the
documentary evidence of the chronicles and charters,
and more especially of the great survey undertaken
by the Conqueror’s commissioners, and known
as Domesday Book. From these sources we are enabled
to gain a fairly complete view of the Anglo-Saxon culture
in the period immediately preceding the immense influx
of Romance civilisation after the Conquest; and though
some such Romance influence was already exerted by
the Normanising tendencies of Eadward the Confessor,
we may yet conveniently consider the whole subject
here under the age of Eadgar and AEthelred. It
is difficult, indeed, to trace any very great improvement
in the arts of life between the days of Dunstan and
the days of Harold.